Tete Dijana and Gerda Steyn have won the Men’s and Women’s Comrades Marathon Race in record times, respectively.
It was a back-to-back comrades win for Tete who also won the race last year in Kwazulu-Natal. The security guard from North West finished in a time of 5:13:38 beating David Gatebe’s best down run time of 5:18:19 in 2016.
TETE DIJANA POCKETS A MILLION
He will pocket home R1.2 million for finishing first, beating the record and being the first South African over the finish line. Piet Wiersma and Edward Mothibi, also from Nedbank running club, finished second and third respectively.
“I was checking [at Pier Wiersma] because I wanted to relax. My friend [Wiersma] was coming. So I told myself to just reserve the energy for him because my legs were a little bit tired,” he told SuperSport TV.
“It was hard because the race was too fast. Edward came to me and told me these guys are fast. So I just decided to stay behind the guys and later on, decided to push it.
“My coach told me that I must not break too much because next time we should break it again but my friend was giving me pleasure. So I had to break it like this.”
GERDA STEYN BREAKS COMRADES MARATHON RECORD
Meanwhile, South Africa got another record at the 2023 Comrades Marathon. Gerda Steyn has won the 2023 Comrades Marathon in a new down run record of 5:44:54 (unofficial). This is a second win for Gerda, having been champion in 2019. She beat the 5:54:43 record that was set by Frith van der Merwe in 1989.
